Month of Socks......it's all about the socks, this week.

Hello, I hope you all had a good weekend, we spent the weekend in beautiful West Wales in the glorious sunshine, we couldn't have picked a better weekend.

The Month of Socks is still running over on the Must Stash Podcast Ravelry Group and also Molly from A Homespun House Podcast, is also running a sock KAL. May really is the month for socks, so this week I've just been knitting on socks. I've been working on my Jesse Socks and on Saturday, I spent the day knitting on them at the beach. They are nearly finished and will have a FO to show you on Friday.

The other socks I've been knitting on are my stripy socks using Twisted Limone Tangy Sock yarn, a fab self striping yarn. I spent a lot of time in the car this weekend, so I knit quite a bit on these, I had finished the first one but wasn't happy with the cuff. I've undone it and have knit a twisted 1x1 rib instead, I think it looks neater than a regular 1x1 rib. I've just put the waste yarn in for the heel on the second sock, so hope to have these finished by the end of May.

Though I've spent a lot of time reading this week, I'm still on The Butterfly Box by Santa Montefiore, it's a long book but I love saga's that run over the years. All the characters are very interesting, though I feel like shaking a couple of them, they are very likeable. My Kindle broke this week, so I'm now reading on my phone.

Check out Ginny's Yarn Along, Nicloe's Keep Calm, Craft On and Tami's WIP Wednesday for more Work in Progress, this week.

Here are a few photos of my weekend, you always know you're in Wales when the sheep just wander along the road, without a care in the world.

On the way to the hotel, we stopped off at Aberaeron, a gorgeous Regency seaside town. It is such a pretty town, with lots of lovely gift shops and coffee bars, it even has a little wool shop where I couldn't resist a couple of skeins of 100% llama yarn.

After looking around the town we had a stroll to the sea front and had a spot of lunch, doesn't food taste so much better when you are sat outdoors with views like this ?

Next, we drove down to New Quay, a harbour town made famous by Dylan Thomas, who moved there in 1944. It's also famous for dolphin watching and I was lucky enough to see some, very close to shore, I can't tell you how excited I was!!!!

Here I am wearing my Global Nomad Cowl, sat on the sea wall watching the dolphins.

We arrived at the Gellifawr Hotel, late afternoon, where we were staying in one of their self catering cottages, it was beautiful and very comfortable. Behind the white gate, is a water wheel so while we were sat outside, we could here the gentle, relaxing, flow of water. The hotel is very isolated, high in the Welsh Hills of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, perfect for a relaxing break.

I made the most of the mornings, sat in this rocker with the sunlight beaming through and knitting, bliss!!!

We had breakfast Al Fresco, enjoying croissants, fresh orange juice and coffee, with nothing but the baaing of sheep and running water. Sadly, the weekend went too fast, I could of easily stopped another few days.

Thanks for stopping by, have a good week.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Yarn Along.......Month of Socks.

Hello, I'm back today to show you what I've been working on this week, I seem to have a lot of WIPs on the needles, more than I usually have and I've cast on another three projects! Can you have too many WIPs?????

This month the Must Stash Girls are having a Month of Socks KAL over on Ravelry, where basically anything goes, as long as you are knitting socks. It could be finishing off WIPs, great if you have second sock syndrome or they are encouraging you to try something new. They are giving lots of advice and help including tutorials on the forum, these girls are great, if you haven't seen their podcast yet, you really should pop over and watch, they are great fun.

I bought the book A Knitted Sock Society by Rachel Coopey, sometime ago, it has ten gorgeous cuff down patterns using one of my favourite sock yarns, Rowan Fine Art. I've never knit cuff down socks before, so I decided to give them a go and chose the Jesse socks which are a colourwork sock using two contrasting colours. The reason I'd never tried cuff down was the heel, I was put off by picking up stitches, it seemed a lot more complicated than toe up. I really don't know why I was worried though, it was very simple and actually seemed a lot quicker! I wish I'd tried them a lot sooner!

I'm also hoping to finish my stripy socks by the end of the month, I've done my first Afterthought Heel which was also easier than I thought it would be. I have made a small mistake, I should have knit the waste yarn in the middle of a stripe. I've now got one random row of brown, which doesn't look right but I'll know for the next time.

Do you remember last week that I was looking through my vintage baby patterns? Well, I decided on this one, a sweet little cardigan that wraps over and buttons at the front. I'm using a new to me yarn called Pro Lana Merino Pur 175, a beautifully soft 4ply yarn, perfect for babies.

My third new project is the Gramps Cardigan by Kate Oates, my sister asked if I'd knit my nephew a cable jacket for his 1st birthday. I love this pattern, it's a perfect cardigan for a little boy, it will look really cute on my little man!

I'm still reading The Butterfly Box by Santa Montefiore, I really enjoy her books and this is no exception, I also wanted to show you these little 10g balls of Lion Brand cotton that I bought from Hobbycraft. I couldn't resist these tiny balls of yarn in all these gorgeous colours, I'm a sucker for anything in miniature, they will be great for making crochet flowers. Check out Ginny's blog, Tami's and Nicole's for lots more Work in Progress, this week.

Thanks for stopping by.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Yarn Along......Magic Loop or DPN's

Do you remember these socks I cast on, back in February, my first self striping socks, I was very excited about knitting them but I kept looking at them and just wasn't happy with how they were looking. I usually used two circulars to knit socks but I decided to try Magic Loop for the first time.

As you can see with this close up, the start of each row, looks really untidy, I never had this problem using two circulars. I had a look on the web to see if there was a reason this was happening and by the looks of it a few people had the same problem. The common problem seemed to be pulling the yarn to tight and recommended holding the yarn a bit looser. I tried this but I still had the same problem.

While reading up on this problem a lot of knitters said that they preferred to knit with DPNs so I thought I'd give them a go. I had tried them before but always felt very awkward holding them. I prefer toe up socks so I used a circular needle to cast on using Judy's Magic Cast On and then changed to DPNs, once I finished the toe increases.

It took me a few rounds to get use to using DPNs but I soon got the hang of them and I'm much happier with how my self striping socks are looking. Look at the difference between the two socks side by side, once I've finished my sock on the DPNs, I will frog the other sock and knit that one on them too.

I'm knitting the collar of my Hana Hou and just have a few more rows before I can start seaming together, I absolutely love this pattern and can't wait to finish it.

I'm enjoying my stripy vanilla socks as they are easy to knit whilst out and about or watching TV but I do prefer something with more of a pattern, so this week, I cast on the Crocus Socks by Wendy D. Johnson. I'm using A Fine Fish 4ply sock yarn in Roller Disco, again I'm using Knit Pro Symfonie DPNs. I have just bought some Knit Pro Karbonz to try, I've heard quite good things about them, I'd be interested in what you think, if you've used them.

I haven't worked much on my Miss Winkle and have only knit a couple more loops, I'm over half way through the book I started last week and really enjoying it, it's a great chick lit to read before going to bed.

I've also cast on another new project, I asked Jodie to choice a few Rico Essential Cotton from The Homemakery to knit a striped garter stitch baby blanket, these are what she chose.

I couldn't decide which colour to cast on first, so I asked my Instagram friends to chose for me, the first person to comment chose the Lime Green, so that s what I went with. I'm going to go through the other comments and knitting the colours in order of what they chose, I'll show you my progress, next Wednesday. I know I'm going to enjoy knitting with these pretty Spring colours.

I'm linking to Ginny's Yarn Along and Tami's WIP Wednesday, check out what other knitters have on their needles.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your week.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Yarn Along.........Miss Winkle.

 

Hi there, I'm back today with a new project!!!!!!! I did promise myself, I wouldn't cast on anything new until I'd finished one of my other WIP's....................but when I saw on Instagram, that Sarah from Crafts from the Cwtch, was starting a new Spring KAL on the 15th March and the pattern was Miss Winkle, I couldn't resist!!!!!!

The original pattern was knit in a variegated yarn, which looked really pretty and I had some A Stash Addict in Mermaids Hair. I'm never sure which patterns look good with a variegated yarn so this has been sitting in my stash for ages and thought it would look good for this shawl.

I've named it my Easter Shawl, as my blog friend, Stephanie, commented that the colours reminded her of Easter M&M's. The pattern is easy to memorise and is great to take with you when you're out and about, I knit what you can see, in the car over the weekend. I love the loopy edge and it only takes 100g of 4ply yarn, you just knit until you've run out of yarn.

I've finished the first sock of my First Time for Everthing and have casted on the second one, I will add the Afterthought Heel, when I've finished both socks. I've also tried a new to me bind off called Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off which gives a really good stretchy cuff.

I've also finished one of my Linden Mitts..........

and have cast on the second one, this pattern knits up really quick and I love the stripes. I think these will go towards my niece's Christmas present.

Last but not least, I've only got to pick up the stitches for the collar on my Aureus, so will be finished by Friday. This week I've started V is for Vengence by Sue Grafton, I use to read these series of books, years ago and read up to about M is for..... I stopped seeing them in book shops but saw this the other day so picked it up.

I'm linking to Ginny's Yarn Along and WIP Wednesday, thanks for stopping by and enjoy the week.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Yarn Along......two WIP's on the needles.

Good morning, I'm back today with this week's WIP's, I have got three WIP's on the go but have only worked on two this week.

The main one I've been knitting on is my Aureus cardigan using Rowan Felted Tweed DK, after soaking and blocking, this yarn really plumps and softens up, I really like it and will definitely buy it again.

I've finished the back, left and front side, blocked and joined them together. I'm now working on the sleeves. I really want this finished by the end of the month, as I've joined in with The Sock Bunny Sweater-A-Long, which ends on the 31st March.

I've decided to knit both sleeves at the same time, this is the first time I've attempted it and wasn't sure how it would work out. I'm using circular needles with a long cables and two balls of yarn, so far, so good, no mistakes and no tangles. It's probably no quicker by doing this but I don't know about you but once the first sleeve is finished, I just want the second one finished as I know I'm close to completing the garment.

The other WIP are my First Time for Everything, stripy socks using Twisted Limone, self striping yarn in Find the River.

I'm attempting an Afterthought Heel for the first time and have just knit the waste yarn, where the heel will go, I'm going to be very nervous when I come to undo it and put them back on my needles!!!!!

This week, I'm reading Unraveled by Maggie Sefton, a murder mystery set around a yarn shop, I think I might be a bit obsessed with all things yarny!!!!!! I'm linking up wth Ginny's Yarn Along and Tami's WIP Wednesday.

Tomorrow, I'm going to a Rowan Fairisle workshop, this is something I've wanted to learn properly for a while now. I had booked onto a different Fairisle workshop, last year but it was cancelled so when I saw Rowan was doing one, locally to me, I booked myself on it. I'll let you know how I get on, I will hopefully be knitting a Fairisle jumper before long.

Thank you for stopping by, have a good day.

xxxxDebxxxx